The present invention relates to an apparatus for wet-heat treating a cloth at a temperature above 100.degree. C. continuously.
For subjecting a long cloth to such treatments as scouring, bleaching, dyeing, resin finishing and weight reducing continuously, such means as an ordinary atmospheric pressure treating method which is carried out at the ordinary atmospheric pressure and a high pressure treating method which is done at an elevated pressure higher than the ordinary atmospheric pressure have usually been adopted. However, the former ordinary pressure treating method requires a long time at a temperature below 100.degree. C. until the treatment is completed, thus lacking of high productivity and furthermore, the quality of the product is not satisfactory. Therefore, the latter high pressure method, in which the treatment can be done speedily at a high temperature and the quality of the product is excellent, is widely adopted at the present time.
This high pressure treating method allows continuous wet-heat treatment of a cloth under high temperature and high humidity by using a steamer can or reactor which can hold high temperature and high humidity, while permitting continuous feeding of the cloth therethrough. By effecting wet-heat treatment under high temperature and high humidity, a treating agent is caused to react with the cloth whereby a desired processing, such as scouring, bleaching, dyeing, resin finishing, weight reducing or the like, can be effected continuously at high speed. In such wet-heat treatment under high temperature and high humidity, however, it is necessary to hold the atmosphere within the steamer can at high temperature and at high humidity, preparatory to starting the wet-heat treatment, and consequently it requires relatively long time until the atmosphere within the steamer can attains a predetermined high level of temperature and humidity. Accordingly, this treatment requires relatively long readiness time before actually starting the cloth treating operation and furthermore, it requires a large amount of thermal energy to attain the predetermined high temperature and high humidity of the atmosphere within the steamer can.
In the case where a pair of seal mechanisms are provided at the cloth inlet and outlet of the steamer can for maintaining the interior of the steamer can to a high temperature and high humidity atmosphere while allowing the taking in and out of a cloth continuously therethrough, the construction of the whole apparatus becomes complicated and particularly the construction cost becomes unavoidably very high in a large size apparatus.
Furthermore, in the conventional wet-heat treating methods, while a cloth is soaked with a treating solution at a position outside of the steamer can by passing the cloth through a treating solution tank, the resultant cloth must be squeezed with the use of squeeze rollers for removing the excess of the treating solution in introducing the cloth in the steamer can, thereby causing the problem of the unevenness in squeezing. In other words, the width of a commercial cloth is at least more than 90 cm, and it requires a squeeze roller with a length at least with the width of the cloth for squeezing such a broad cloth continuously. In such a long squeeze roller, the squeezing pressure differs at the central part and the two end parts of the roller, causing the unevenness in squeezing the treating solution from the cloth and consequently the unevenness in treatment. In dyeing, particularly, the occurrence of dye speck caused to occur due to the unevenness in squeezing is a serious problem.